Author Canin is all smiles

CRAIG MARINE, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Monday, February 21, 2000

If Ethan Canin didn't punctuate his conversation with an easy chuckle every so often, it wouldn't be too hard to peg him as the gloomiest critically acclaimed author ever to graduate from Harvard Medical School. Come to think of it, laughs or not, Canin probably doesn't have much competition.

He spent his formative years in San Francisco (his father, violinist Stuart Canin, was concertmaster of the S.F. Symphony), and still returns to The City often from his current perch as professor in the prestigious University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Just now, he is very close to having a movie made from one of his short stories. But Canin is having none of it.

"I'll believe it when the lights go down in the theater and I see something on the big screen," said Canin by phone from Hawkeye-land. "There have been so many false alarms, I don't allow myself to get excited."

Just about when you want to reach through the phone, shake him by the collar and tell him he's got life made in the shade,

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Canin will toss in a good guffaw to clue you that his pessimism is, in part, a finely tuned defense mechanism. He is very excited by the prospect of actor Kevin Kline starring and directing a version of his "The Palace Thief" for New Line Films.

"I was a little bit scared at first," admitted Canin, who was informed of his good fortune by one of the two men who had taken an option on his story. "I didn't want it to get butchered or anything, but that was before Kevin Kline came along and I think he has a very serious literary sense. At least, I hope so."

Canin didn't want some Hollywood hack taking excessive liberties with his tale of the shifting roles between a headmaster at a boy's school and his pupils over the years. As written, "The Palace Thief" tackles power, morals, politics and a few other topics. You can see why Canin might be nervous about some Jennifer Love Hewitt type showing up as a manufactured love interest to boost ticket sales.

"That crossed my mind," Canin said. "But I heard that the more money that was put into a film, the more likely they were to take liberties with the story. And I don't think anyone is going to break the bank making this film. But I also don't know anything about the industry, so I'm really just faking it, to be honest."

The agony of writing

Also, to be honest, the movie deal is far enough along that Canin can say that that he's read the latest version of the screenplay (by Neil Tolkin).

"I liked it very much, really," he said. "There were a few changes - like they added an extra character in the end, but it didn't really matter too much.

"I've never been somebody who was absolutely wedded to my words," he continued. "I know that story could have gone 10 different ways, it just happened that I chose one in particular."

Canin approaches writing the way most people would approach a pit of venomous snakes, or at the very least, a dentist's appointment.

"Writing is not a romantic calling for me. In fact, it's pure agony," Canin said, leaving out the laughs. "But I have the advantage of working for myself and setting my own hours, those types of things. It's more what I feel I have to do than what I want to do. I've tried other things."

Canin, in fact, was doing his doctor's residency when the writer's bug overwhelmed him and he cast aside the healing profession, just before becoming a doctor. He obviously doesn't regret it.

Like every other writer, Canin has heard that argument that movies have replaced the novel and become the common language among the public - some even taking it so far as to declare the novel dead. While Canin won't concede the latter, he realizes that his calling may not reach anywhere near a comparable

audience.

'Retain their importance'

"A popular novel - even a bestseller - barely rates as a speck against the number of people who will see a hit movie," he said. "For the small circle of people that still read, the novels retain their importance. But almost every literary type I know would rather have their book made into a movie than have a glowing review in the New York Times. That's just real life."

For Canin, real life includes his wife, a new 5-month-old daughter to go with their 31/2 -year-old girl, and a life split between San Francisco and Iowa.

"It's incredibly beautiful here," Canin said. "The kids love the snow, at least my eldest does, because you can sled and do all those fun things. The grown ups might not like it quite as much because you can spend so much time getting the kids all bundled up and ready for the elements and then have them turn around in a few

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seconds and decide they never really wanted to play outside anyway."

This time, the laughter masks nothing at all, and it's clear that for all his grumbling Canin is, as he should be, a very happy man. &lt;

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